When a search query is inputted from a user, a search service system providing search services generally provides the user with search results corresponding to the search query (for example, websites including the search query, articles including the search query, and images including the search query as a file name).
A recent search service system provides a related search query providing service which extracts search queries associated with a search query which is inputted from a user, and provides the user with the extracted search queries, so that the user may quickly and accurately retrieve the user's desired information. Specifically, the recent search service system generally provides the user with different search results according to the inputted search query. As an example, a search result which is generated when the user inputs a term “car” may be different from the search result which is generated when the user inputs a term “vehicle”. Accordingly, a user attempts to input a search query which is more related to the user's desired information, so as to acquire the desired information. However, the searcher may not conceive a more closely related search query. Accordingly, the recent search service system provides a service which provides the user with search queries that are related to the user's inputted search query, using the search query and statistical information, and thereby, enables the user to retrieve the user's desired information using another search query.
Here, the related search query may designate, for example, a search query which corresponds to a superordinate concept or a subordinate concept of the user's input search query (for example “foreign language” when “Japanese” is inputted, and conversely, “Japanese” when “foreign language” is inputted), a search query which has a synonymous relation to the user's input search query (for example “bookstore” when “bookshop” is inputted), a search query which has an equivalent relation to the user's input search query (for example “tag” when “tail” is inputted), and a search query which has a relation to the user's input search query in an aspect of meaning (for example “saw, seen, seeing” when “see” is inputted). Also, the related search query may designate a search query which has a relation from various viewpoints. As an example, when search query “Parkchanho” is inputted, the related search query may designate a search query, for example, his occupation “baseball”, his baseball league “major league”, his university “Hanyang university”, his baseball team “Texas rangers”, a different Korean baseball player on the same baseball team “Kimbyunghyun”, and the like.
However, in a related search query providing service according to a conventional art, a service operator must classify other search queries related to a search query, and store each of the classified search queries. Accordingly, the service operator may suffer from temporal losses and economic losses.
Also, a simultaneous occurrence class method where a relation between terms is defined as a probability that the terms may simultaneously occur, a document class method where documents are classified into groups, and terms usually appearing in each of the groups are defined as related words, and a grammar class method where a relation between terms is understood using a simultaneously occurring characteristic between a linguistic knowledge and a document are suggested to extract a related search query with less time and costs. However, the above-described methods consider not the meaning relation between the terms, but only a statistical relation between the terms. Accordingly, the user may not understand the relation between the extracted related search queries.
To solve the inconveniences described above, the Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0372078 disclosed “a method for related terms searching” which can generate a thesaurus using a query log received from a user, and enables the user to retrieve related terms in an aspect of meaning by using the generated thesaurus.
The method for related term searching registers a portion of search queries, which have been inputted within a predetermined session from the user's input queries, as related terms, and thereby generates the thesaurus. Also, when the user inputs a query into a related terms searching apparatus, the method for related term searching identifies related terms of the query, arranges the same, and provides the user with the arranged related terms.
However, the method for related terms searching can determine the relation between queries using the query log which was received within a certain session, but still includes problems of the conventional art, as follows.
Specifically, even in the case of using the method for related terms searching, problems still remain, such as 1) the user may not understand a relation between extracted related terms since all the related terms that occur at least once in an identical session are registered as the related terms, 2) all the terms that accidentally occur in an identical session are registered as the related terms since the related terms are not registered by systematically analyzing accumulated data during a predetermined period, 3) an unnecessary amount of time is consumed to understand the relation between search queries by adopting a method of extracting a term from a keyword although the user generally inputs the search query, not the keyword, and 4) a great amount of related terms may exist by registering all the terms that occur at least once in an identical session, as the related terms.
Consequently, even in the case of the method for related terms searching, it is still likely to extract a search query which has no relation to the search query which is inputted from a user. Accordingly, a user who desires to quickly and accurately retrieve the user's desired information using a high quality service may not be satisfied.
Accordingly, a new technology which can effectively collect data about a search query inputted from a user, systematically analyze the collected data, and determine a relation between search queries using the analyzed data, and thereby can provide the user with a high quality service is required.